The eagle mother answered and said, “I have lost three children. Have you seen any—lost in the wilderness? I could not sleep all last night, for a great trouble has come to me.”
The eagle cousin said, “I saw three eagle children pass here. They went to the Fah-Nim tree and ate of its fruit. They were playing there, and seemed to be happy.”
The eagle mother went to the Fah-Nim tree and saw three little eagles; and she said, “Children, how did you come here?”
The little eagles answered her, “We are not your children. Why do you call us? We have had no mother since we were born. The rice bird left us when we were small. She said we were not her children. Then an eagle came along and gave us food until we could fly.”
The eagle mother said, “You look like my older children, and I believe you are mine. Would you like to go with me and see our home?”
Then the little eagles talked together and said, “She is very kind to us. Of course we do not know her, but we might go and see her home.” [[154]]
So they went, and in that eagle mother’s house, they soon knew her for their mother and she knew her own children.
And Jeung-Po lost the money, for it was proved that he could not change nature. Each bird went back to its own kind. The eagle is always an eagle, and the rice bird is always a rice bird.
Ee-Sze (Meaning): The good can not stay with the evil; light can not be changed into darkness, nor darkness into light. White is always white and black is always black. The rice bird is always a rice bird and the eagle is always an eagle. Each is according to his own nature and kind. Man need not try to change those things which the Creator made changeless. [[155]]